The door cracks open and a servant dressed in a flowing white robe motions for me to enter. I slip the sack of gold coins into her apron pocket as I step past her.
“I can only give you a few minutes. Make them count.” The woman closes the door behind as she leaves, the thud echoing through the grand foyer of Arcasia’s rooms.
There’s a coldness here, embedded deep into the tapestries, rugs, and furniture. The kind of cold that seeps through your clothing and buries itself in the marrow of your bones. A shiver snakes down my spine as I begin my search for the goddess.
Her drawing room, her bedroom, her bathing chamber—they’re all empty, pristine, and untouched. Chambers that might as well belong to a ghost.
The moment her pregnancy became public knowledge, Nobusconfined her here.For protection, he claimed. As if the Goddess of Protection needed anyone, no matter how powerful, to keep her safe.
No, her sentence here is about control. Why else confine a queen for two years other than to break her?
A humming sound draws me further into her tomb-like quarters. The soft, melodic noise, both soothing and haunting, stops when I step into the nursery.
Arcasia sits beside the window, the dying light from the evening sun streaming across her face, illuminating the raven hair that cascades down her body in waves.
“Have you come for him?” she asks, her eyes never leaving the sleeping toddler cradled tightly in her arms.
“No.”
“Light?” she asks in disbelief as her eyes meet mine. “Of all the gods I thought would come to kill my son, I never once thought it would be you.”
“I am not here to kill anyone, Arcasia. I’m here…” I open and close my mouth several times, the weight of my gamble nearly too much to bear. “I’m here to…bargain with you.”
A dry, broken laugh cracks in her throat. “A bargain? Selene, I am a prisoner here. I have been stripped and deprived of offerings for so long that I barely have enough power left to protect my son. What could I possibly have that you want besides his life?”
“I want him to live,” I reassure her. “I want to save your son from his father, but in order to do that, I need your word that you will keep the information I am going to give you a secret.”
“If I aid the rebellion, he will kill us both,” she says matter-of-factly. “Do not expect me to play games of thrones and kings when my child’s life is at stake.”
As long as Arcasia believes that I’m here on behalf of the rebellion, she will never believe me. My hands move to rest across mybelly as I prepare to offer her the only thing that will convince her of my true motives.
“My child’s life is at stake, too.”
The goddess tilts her head, her eyes roving over my body. “Your child?” she asks, skeptically.
“Mikais didn’t send me.” I take a steadying inhale before pressing on. “In fact, this could likely jeopardize the entire rebellion. But I need you to hear me out. From one mother to another.”
Arcasia rises from the chair and deposits the still sleeping prince in his golden crib. She swipes a finger across his brow, brushing the strands of black hair out of his face.
“There is nothing I won’t do to keep him safe,” she declares. “You have never been an adversary, Light, but if I choose to trust you now and you cross me, I will make you regret the day Creation formed you.”
“I would expect nothing less.”
The Goddess of Protection presses a single kiss to the prince’s forehead and stands to her full height. Her gray eyes pin me to the spot as she approaches, crossing her porcelain arms over her chest.
“Let’s hear it then. How exactly do you propose we save our children?”
The Goddess of Song stands atop the makeshift podium, sapphire leather clinging to her curves. Lyra beams, the first notes of her song already drifting from the harp as the rebellion leaders ascend to stand beside her. Nina has donned similar armor, hers in a deep shade of ruby red.
“My brothers and sisters!” Mikais says above the crowd of gods gathered at the edge of the forest.
Creatures of all shapes and sizes linger in the treeline that marks the start of the Great Wildes—the true dominion of the Wolf God. Their eyes glow in the light from our torches as they await a command from their god.
The edges of his silver fur cloak whip in the wind as he raises his voice. “Welcome to the beginning of the rest of your lives.”
Cheers ring up from the crowd, the animals roaring and chittering in agreement. Nina’s flaming torch casts a sinister shadow across Mikais’ face as a smile forms on his lips.
“For too long we have suffered under my brother’s rule. For too long we have bent to his will. We deserve to live how and where we want. We deserve to feel the full might of our power again. No more offerings to him. No more kneeling at the feet of a god who loathes us. Tonight, we take back our realm and we take back our lives.”
